November 11, 2014

We just released a new update for War of the Roses, a little something we'd like to see as a maintenance patch. This serves to increase the stability of the game, make sure our Anti Cheat service continues to work and - most importantly - improve the demo player / new player experience. What we have done is a complete revamp of all our default classes to ensure they are viable, fun and can compete with Kingmaker custom loadouts. These classes were created together with veteran community member Kennedy. We'd love to hear your feedback!

About This Game

War of the Roses is a team based third person action game set in 15th century England. Two rival branches of the Royal House of Plantagenet - the house of Lancaster (the reds) and the house of York (the whites) – fight over the throne, and the player is thrown into the fray.

The years of 1455-1485 in England are an extraordinary setting filled with conflict, treachery and bloodshed. In the wake of the “death of chivalry” at Agincourt in 1415 and the introduction of gunpowder, warfare changed - the gloves came off, so to speak. The old and the new clashed on the battlefield while personal vendettas motivated the desire for war.

War of The Roses sees players go toe-to-toe with their opponents using authentic and visceral weapons of the time period including broad swords, long bows and battle-axes.

Key Features:

Four Ways To Play – Play as a Footman, Gaurdsman, Longbowman, or Footknight allowing you to explore the various combat options that fight your expertise best.

Mass Devastation - Up to 64 player competition in both Team Death Match and Conquest modes. Battle online through 11 historically inspired war zones as you experience the conflict between Lancaster & York first hand.

Rank Up and Earn Coins Through Battle – gain experience and coins as you battle your way through your prowess on the fields of battle.

At its peak, this was one of my favorite games of all time, the combat mechanics were deep and had a steep learning curve, the armor system was very complex and logical, and above all this game rewarded the skill of the players.

Of the 140 hours I've played, roughly 100 of them were spent on dueling servers fighting 1on1 with other players, all of whom were there because they enjoyed the actual competition or to master their skills with a new weapon. The dueling community was strong and friendly, always willing to help teach new players how to survive the game.

But then the Devs changed things, the armor system simplified, the weapons became more powerful, crossbows became sniper rifles, hitboxes and crit chances grew, and the art of dueling was lost to the ether; replaced by polearm decapitations, across the map crossbow headshots, and stab spamming. All that is left now is the empty rotting shell of a once great game.

this game used to be fun. it used to be allmost a simulation with armour being taken into account, realistic damage models and historically acurate everything. its not anymore. patch after patch update after update and your left with a husk of what it used to be. an example of this is the wooden rake. the wooden rake is ,as it sounds, a rake made from wood and string, however an over head attack from it will ,no matter what armour you wear or what sield you use, insta-kill you. this has been a bug for a good year now and has never been fixed. instead they constantly add new contenet no one asked for just to un even the playing field even more. my point is simple: if you want sword on sword combat at its best, play chivalry.

Great game until they made it free. That's when the pay 2 win started.

Before, you had to earn Gold. Now you can just spend 50 bucks on gold, gear up, get a pollaxe (hasn't been patched, still OP as ♥♥♥♥) and spam right swing. Make sure to spam at neck/head level. That way you just get instant kills. Lots of fun!

I preordered this game before it was released and had a lot of fun with it whilst it was alive. War of the Roses is, well was a great game that got totally ruined by idiotic developers, publishers etc. and random failure of other bad games they released which, somehow, meant this game had to be destroyed. Why is it still for sale on steam?

I downvoted this because the game seems to be totally dead and unplayable....if it was playable still it would be a big thumbs up! It is sad, as it was a good game.

Used to be good. However, at its peak, it never surpassed Mount&Blade. You can also play Chivalry over this, and even though Chivalry also has a lot of bugs as well, it's still much more playable and satisfying.

We are writing you today to inform you what is happening with the War franchise, most importantly War of the Vikings but also its predecessor War of the Roses. This announcement has been some time in the making and has been no easy conclusion, yet we aim to be as transparent as possible. So, with no further ado, here is what is happening.

We are stopping sales of the Valhalla edition - effective immediately All Valhalla owners will receive a large selection of Paradox Interactive's games on steam (added directly to their steam libraries), estimated value circa $800 as compensation. This will appear within a few days Valhalla owners will also keep their Valhalla privileges - nothing will change here War of the Vikings will see two patches to increase stability and solve major issues - after this we will cease patching and have no plans to support the game further through updates/fixes Servers will continue to stay active until further notice War of the Roses will see no further development Why are we doing this? To put it simple and straight forward; We've looked at this from every single angle (that's why it's taken time for us to come to this conclusion) over and over and we just can't find a way where we can keep developing the games without operating at a loss. War of the Vikings did not live up to our expectations and we could not find a reasonable scenario where we could bring it up to par quality wise.

We have chosen to patch Vikings in order to bring it to a better state, so that current players can continue to enjoy what we have today with increased stability.

Sincerely,The War Team

(Geuss that explains things. I really do hope a new dev team picks it up.)

This game is honest amazing. Within the first few months of the game being released and me playing it, I found it terrible, but then after about 5 months without playing it, I decided to go back and see what it's like. After 5 months I had gotten used to playing with a keyboard and mouse (This was my first PC game, and I just got my pc). When I had come back to the game, I noticed that it wasn't all bad, and that it had a great community. I stuck to dueling servers to get the hang of things, and also to learn how other players fight, and their style. About 200 hours had passed with me playing duel servers, and I felt like Roses had been made really well.

So now I am at 912 hours, and like all good games do, this game began to die around 2014. It has lost most of it's players, not I am able to say that there are still around 200 of us nerds that still play this game. The community now has turned into ♥♥♥♥♥, ♥♥♥♥♥ and even more ♥♥♥♥♥. Duel server are owned by power hungry ♥♥♥♥♥s (PoE this is meant for you) who don't let new players learn how to play anymore. Then if you find a duel server which accepts you, you always have the admins randoming (Wabbits is a terrible server, players don't duel) - The randoming admins are on the Blood & Steel server.

Anyway, the game still has around 200 people, about 100 of those are c.unt$, d1ckh34ds and tw@s. However these are the guys who make the game fun, and I would miss them if they had stopped. (Except the f4gg0t that goes by the name PoE, no one would miss him)

As of right now, I wouldn't suggest buying the full game unless you are able to get it cheaper than £15. Try our the free trial first, and if you like it, then use websites which sell the game cheaper that way, you aren't wasting money on a dying game.

P.S. This game gets really addicting when you rek noobs and then get banned from their server

The War of the Roses was a big old 15th Century dynastic squabble between two Plantagenet houses, York and Lancaster, for the throne of England. It ended in a Lancastrian victory, the reconciliation of the two houses, and the creation of House Tudor. Most importantly, it involved a lot of battles filled with armored chaps beating the living daylights out of each other. Fatshark's War of the Roses is all about those fellows, and their bloody clashes. Up to 64 players duke it out amid the pastoral setting of England's verdant countryside, ripped apart by brutal conflict. It can be a fast-paced slaughterfest one minute, and a methodical, tactical, squad-based multiplayer experience the next.There are fairly limited options in terms of game modes--team deathmatch as well as a conquest-style mode, in which players capture areas, are the only match types. The lack of variety in game modes means the team-versus-team matches can get tiresome. But what War of the Roses lacks in modes, it compensates for in the novelty of gameplay.Getting a kill in War of the Roses is no easy task. It takes a combination of mouse clicks and mouse swipes just to swing your weapon. Blocking works in almost the same vein, so sword fights between two players feels like a real medieval duel. Every move is deliberate, and winning battles comes from skill rather than getting in a few lucky shots. Every attack or bow shot must be calculated and perfectly timed to land, since opposing players can block, dodge, or interrupt your attacks at any time. However, because it is so difficult to land a critical hit, when you actually manage to deliver a crushing blow, it's incredibly satisfying.Those who have played the Battlefield series, will immediately recognize the squad system. When players respawn, they have the option to do so on different points on the map, including on other squad members.When in combat, you have the option to carry a wide variety of weapons, including swords, shields, axes, bows, and poled weapons--like Halberds and spears. Each weapon type differs in effectiveness, and encourages different fighting styles.Your choice of armor plays as much of a part in combat as your weapon. Not only can you unlock visually intimidating armor sets, certain character attributes can be affected, including movement speed and defensive abilities. Some armors can even completely deflect attacks.As you level up from winning matches and getting kills, you'll earn money, which can be used to purchase weapons, armor, character perks, and other bonuses like mounts. The perks break down into offensive, defensive, and squad support perks called Officer perks.Limited though it may be, War of the Roses delivers a grisly, realistic take on third-person medieval combat that hits most of the right notes. More than just a refreshing change of pace for the genre, it captures the raw kinetic essence of the period's turbulent warfare in an exciting way.

War of the Roses might not be the newest or most innovative of games on Steam right now. It might neither be the prettiest, nor the most dynamic. It is true that Chivalry has the edge on it when it comes to the fighting-mechanics and that combat feels a bit floaty and accidental at times.

And you know what?

I don't care one bit.

War of the Roses is still damn beautiful, it is abrupt, gory and harder to master than any FPS out right now. Have you ever wanted to find out, what it feels like to fight chaotic battles in a full suit of armour? Well, go start doing Reenactment.

But if you want to enjoy the comfort of your chair and have a lot of fun that is similar to an FPS, but with infinitly more style, get War of the Roses.

It has double-handed pole-axes, armoured horses and people beating each other to a bloody pulm, goddammit!

This was once a good game, this was once a fun game, this was a game where you could revive a teammate who was wearing a full plate armor in 1 sec "You could i swear" But then came the age of two-handers and everything changed. Now it is a desolate land full of magical wooden sticks that can kill a knight in one hit to the toe. This was a fun game.... WAS!!!!

War of the Roses is a very under-rated game. If you enjoyed M&B:Warband you will enjoy this game too. It's much more realistic than Warband. The individual battles take a significant amount longer to the larger amount of health that you have. They also have included a class creation system, some perks, that spans from game to game which is similair to the c-rpg mod that was present on M&B Warband. I'd highly recommend this game to anyone looking for a fun and complex medieval combat.

Really good game, however it has some problems. Combat seems really unpredictable, there are lots of situations where you just keep swinging sword/mace/axe and it doesn't do anything. Blocking is realised well but still, many players prefer just to spam enemy with hundreds of swings, and they are absolutely right. Blocking should be part of the game but it just isn't worth doing in most situations. First 5 hours of gameplay aren't really enjoyable, better are just wrecking newbies, there are no typical servers for new players where they can learn. If You are new player then you should propably go to the duel server to practice some 1vs1 fighting before starting to play normal battles, trust me - it helps alot.

Personally i enjoyed playing this game alot and im still sometimes turning it on just to mess around with two-handed axe or crossbow. Totally worth having, some people are selling it on outpost.tf for 2 keys (around 4.50$).

Remember to test game (it has free "demo" which is just full version of game without option to customise loadout), if You buy it then you'll keep money and levels acquired when playing "cut" version of the game.

Cons: - melee combat is sometimes not working as well as it should - some balance issues (swords are extremly hard to use agains heavy armored targets and even if you are able to hurt them you still wont deal alot of damage, axes are extremely powerfull both vs heavily and lightly armored targets and are easy in use) - weak blocking mechanic - helmets are limiting vision, which is realistic, sure, but also annoying and that's the main reason why most of the people prefer wearing light armor.

"Then let the earth be drunken with our blood:I'll kill my horse, because I will not fly.Why stand we like soft-hearted women here,Wailing our losses, whiles the foe doth rage;And look upon, as if the tragedyWere play'd in jest by counterfeiting actors?Here on my knee I vow to God above,I'll never pause again, never stand still,Till either death hath closed these eyes of mineOr fortune given me measure of revenge." - Shakespeare, Henry VI

War of the Roses is lots of fun! Don't be deceived by all the negative reviews; there are plenty of full servers, and the most recent patch updated the F2P classes to make them equals of custom characters. Compared to Mount & Blade and Chivalry, War of the Roses has much deeper customization options. The combat system emphasizes realism, and is slower than that of the other games in the genre. Kill animations are fantastic. Lastly, this game has incredible graphics!

I played the alpha and the beta and the current free to play version of the game, and honestly not much has changed. It was very clear early on in playing the alpha that certain things about the game were never going to be fixed. Its such a shame as well, because this is such a fun game to play. I cannot recommend this game because of the lack of effort put into the updates by the devs. What a waste.

I really do recomend this game, its chaotic and pure awsome! you feel like a Hero swinging that awsome sword cutting down men.. BUT Paradox is sneaky, they have not posted their agenda on the steam page.. since they are selling "books" and "Voice Overs.." ♥♥♥♥ like that i would love to share with new players that this is the message we got from them! Kickstart it once again or sell it to another company, cause you guys hold a treasure/ruby that i want to shine so bad ! :)

"Statement regarding the War franchise

Greetings community!

We are writing you today to inform you what is happening with the War franchise, most importantly War of the Vikings but also its predecessor War of the Roses. This announcement has been some time in the making and has been no easy conclusion, yet we aim to be as transparent as possible. So, with no further ado, here is what is happening.

•All Valhalla owners will receive a large selection of Paradox Interactive's games on steam (added directly to their steam libraries), estimated value circa $800 as compensation. This will appear within a few days

•Valhalla owners will also keep their Valhalla privileges - nothing will change here

•War of the Vikings will see two patches to increase stability and solve major issues - after this we will cease patching and have no plans to support the game further through updates/fixes

•Servers will continue to stay active until further notice

•War of the Roses will see no further development

•Why are we doing this? To put it simple and straight forward; We've looked at this from every single angle (that's why it's taken time for us to come to this conclusion) over and over and we just can't find a way where we can keep developing the games without operating at a loss. War of the Vikings did not live up to our expectations and we could not find a reasonable scenario where we could bring it up to par quality wise.

We have chosen to patch Vikings in order to bring it to a better state, so that current players can continue to enjoy what we have today with increased stability.

This game honestly has long since been out of it's prime and is now dying slowly of stupidity and poor decision making. I'll highlight a few points to make things clear.

The Devs (and their decisions):

-War of the Roses's original devs were Fatshark; a poorly ran and very unprofessional company. After this game's prime, Fatshark turned most the game's weapons and armors into pay-to-unlock items, money for gold, gold for items, the whole deal.

-After still, they had completely simplified armor to the point of stupidity, originally you had to aim for weaknesses in armor, now it's just hold a click to hit and do damage, even the in-game tutorial is irrelevant to it, but I digress.

-Even later, there were several consecutive nerfs to armor and buffs to weapons; Fatshark put in several weapons that can destroy anything with no skill or finesse; basically "click-to-win.

-Eventually, Paradox Interactive got rid of Fatshark and took War of the Roses where they haven't improved or changed a thing besides the free classes. They haven't even removed the micro-payments, all weapons and armor can be unlocked by buying gold with real money.

The community:

-There's a VERY small but diverse community of players of all levels, shapes, sizes, and nationalities, the problem with that is there is merely a 100th of active servers as there are people(as in 4 active servers out of a few hundred of people), and at night all people from all different countries come on to one single US based server. Ping is not punished in this game.

-Another thing that isn't punished in this game is the exploit. There's numerous exploits to be found in the game, from overpowered weapons, to bugs in the map which make you unreachable, to invisibility glitches, and even to hackers, even with the anti-cheat this game can still be hacked, and all these are consistently exploited by 80% of what little community this game has left. Probably the most prevalent exploit is the use of broken weapons or character builds; two-thirds of the community usually has the same copy-pasted character build with a different paint-job using one of the mentioned broken weapons.

-Duel servers suffer now because of it as new players don't know how to duel and will attack randomly and constantly be spawn camped, tea-bagged, and killed-on-sight until they leave, by high level player wielding an insta-kill weapon. Along with that, duel servers often devolve to a bunch of people insta-killing each other mosh-pit style. There isn't much to be said for other servers other than that it's essentially the same.

New player friendliness:

None. Absolutely NONE. There is a BIG learning curve on weapons, armor, game mechanics, weapon mechanics, armor mechanics, and weapon hitboxes.The tutorial is pretty well irrelevant in comparison to online play; all it's good for is showing how to swing and block slowly and showing the lore of the game.The high level players today are nothing but seal clubbers and love seeing people using the default classes as it immediately tells them "free kill".

Other game comparisons:

-I've heard a lot of the Mount and Blade and Chivalry comparisons and have played both and consistently found myself being spoiled to the fluid motions and amazing modding of Mount and Blade, and the fast, violent, humorous world of chivalry; the second I had gotten on War of the Roses, I noticed how twitchy and uncanny-valley looking it is.

-With War of the Roses, the weapons and armor descriptions have never changed, some are historically incorrect, or historically inaccurate, some customization options are entirely useless from nerfing, the tutorial is worthless as it's reliant on game mechanics that are no longer relevant, the screenshots from this Steam page are staged and some that comes with the game ones are even fake, there is no historical fighting style as all weapons swing the same way, all characters run the same way, it's a little tiny world, with all the same stuff where nothing ever changes

-Chivalry has much going for it from fast, extremely violent combat to hilarious Monty Python references, it's a running, arcade, joke and the devs know that and improve on it to great success. Even today it's being updated, new things are being added, the Devs are celebrating holidays by putting in silly holiday customization options and they even have been hosting contests to let players help create in-game items.

-Mount and Blade is entirely moddable and has numerous community fixes for bugs and such, there are even total convertion mods which make an incredible amount of different kinds of gameplay. With Mount and Blade, the adventure never ends.

Overall Conclusion:

Honestly I COULD NOT recommend this game to anybody, everything about was once good long ago but is now bad.This game is nothing more than a money milking cow for Paradox that dried up long ago but refuses to die.